Work, work, work!!

Hola mis queridos Hermanos..

This week was full of ups and downs...We are working really hard with our baptismal dates to get them ready for baptism. You should see our weekly planning. Our schedules are always crazy busy but this week especially! No one came to church yesterday, which really bummed me out! We all need to go to church and dedicate Sunday to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ..partake of the Sacrament and remember the Atonement of our Savior. It is very hard with investigators when they dont follow through with commitments because we are so involved with them and helping them along this path to baptism..we know they will receive the answers they are seeking through the Spirit, but they have to do their part, read, pray and go to church. Faith without works is dead!

Those on date are Fransisco, Angel, Jorge, Julio and Diana..Lorenzo definately moved so that is a bit depressing, we hope he can continue to learn and still be baptized in his new area! Fransisco has been really sick lately and had to go to the hospital..we have been praying so much for his health to get better. We havent been in contact with him for a week and thats a long time in the mission field when we were having daily contact! I miss him! His baptism is set for this Sunday but we may have to move it back to get him more prepared. He has taken lessons with missionaries for 3 years so he has been taught everything more than once. We want him to receive all the blessings of the Gospel and baptism is such an important step. In my mission I have been able to taste a bit of the desperation that Heavenly Father feels for His children. He wants to bless us so much and He is waiting for us to make the right decisions and follow the promptings He gives us that lead to eternal happiness. Fransisco knows it's true, he has felt the Spirit reassure him..

Angel is a whole different story. Unfortunately his job makes it impossible for him to come to church on Sundays..which means he isnt keeping the sabbath day holy. This is a struggle for a lot of people we are teaching. We had a really spiritual lesson with him, talking about how we need to put Heavenly Father first in our life and all the things of the world including money will fall into place. It seems obvious to keep his two jobs to pay the bills and so on..we expressed to him that quitting a job to be able to go to church on Sundays is a test of his faith. God knows everything we are all going through, at times before we make a huge step spiritually (like a baptism in Angel's case) God will ask us to show Him our faith and do what's right. We shared the parable of the rich man, Christ asked him to give up all the things of the world and follow Him, but the man couldnt do it...We all know that the things of God bring eternal happiness, while the materials of the world only bring temporary happiness. We can't have any other Gods before Heavenly Father! I shared my experience from Cal and how I made the decision to transfer schools to be more comfortable with my religion..Heavenly Father tested my faith to make that hard decision then blessed me after with a mission and ASU! It is way hard to step into the dark and trust, but once we do it a few times we learn to really have confidence in God and realize His will will bring more happiness then our will. Big steps in conversion! Anyways, Angel decided to quit the job in our lesson because he felt peace with that decision...then he changed his mind and called Sunday morning to let us know he wouldnt be coming. I still have faith he will be baptized, it will just take some time to adjust his frame of mind.

Jorge is aking his boss about his work hours to get off on Sundays...Julio also has work but it progressing very well! Diana wasnt home for church yesterday when we went by to pick her up. Yesterday was a rough day. I talked to a few members at church because they noticed I was down. Hermano Santiago pepped me up and said you are doing a great work! You are planting seeds along the way, that will flourish whether its while you are here or after. Hermana Crespo shared with us about her experiences dodging the missionaries..they used to not answer the door for the missionaries on Sunday morning..and now they are baptized! Yipee! So yeah its all a process, still got my faith..just going to do all thats in my power to help them..most is up to their agency and the Lord.

Gladis is absolutely amazing and is progressing very..we are focusing on marriage and gave her and her boyfriend the movie, Together Forever. They want a strong, happy family so I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ will help them achieve that! Hermana Alma came with us and strongly testified about how the church has helped her and her family. I also talked about my desire to have an Eternal family and my excitement to teach my kids!

Adrian's baptism was on Saturday..that was the highlight of the week! The Ortega family is all set now to go to the Temple and be sealed for all time and eternity! We are so thrilled to be able to go with them this Saturday to Nauvoo..a lot of the branch is going to support them and another family, the Rodriguez, is also getting sealed. We are so excited! Ill let you know Monday how it goes. We did splits again with Esmerelda and Jenni Crespo. I am in love with her daughter, Debbi. She is like my little sister! I told her she has to serve a mission.

Well I appreciate every experience I have on my mission and I look forward to more work work work! We found some sweet new investigators at the laundry mat today. :) Love you all!

Hermana Murphy

Letter from Mother's Day!

Hola Hola mi familia y amigos...

Feliz dia de Madres! yesterday was a GREAT day! We had a very cute Sacrament meeting because the primary sang hymns and gave their testimonies. I love primary! I hope to get a calling there someday down the road. Hermana Reese and I made a card with our picture on it for all the Hermanas in the branch, because they are all our mamas! They loved it! After church, we celebrated Mother's day with Hermana Cresp, Hermana Esmerelda and Debbie. I made a gluten-free cake to take with me! They all enjoyed it. I also had the opportunity to talk to my mommy and my step mommy on the phone! All my family is doing great and I love them so much!

Fransisco and Jorge were at church yesterday. They are troopers because they stayed all three hours! Wahoo! Fransisco has a baptismal date for May 30th, Angel for June 5th and Jorge for June 6th. We are working hard to help them be prepared for their baptisms. Fransisco is pumped about his scripture study; Heavenly Father is blessing him with knowledge and the Spirit! He smiles a lot now. Angel wasnt able to come to church because of work; he told us he might change his job to be able to make church more. We didnt bring that up but he decided on his own! Well...He feels the Spirit at church and wants that more with him. We are teaching Jorge and like 10 of his friends! Out of all of them, we least expected him to progress. He has completely surprised us my keeping commitments. He knows the BOM is true and told us he wants to be baptized. Two of his friends- Juan Carlo and Norma are learning and we are trying to set a wedding and baptismal date with them! :) Norma will be having a baby in July. What would be better for that baby then to be born in the covenant of the Lord!

We are working with some other great investigators! We really see potential with Gladis and Adela's family. Gladis has two brothers in the church and is eating up every discussion. She has many spiritual gifts and one of them is her faith! She will need to be married to be baptized...she is friends with the Santanas in the branch and Hermano Santana is a dj. We are planning a dance party! haha. Adela's daughters are excited about young womens and relief society..we will see how that goes.

We did splits again on Friday with Esmerelda, Hermana Crespo and Debbie. All our appointments for the night weren't there so Hermana Crespo, Debbie, and Kevin went tracting. It was so fun! Debbie has been teaching me alot about missionary work. She knocks the doors really hard, gives everyone pass along cards, testifies without hesitation and she is 8 yrs old! We found 5 people that we made appointments with...all thanks to Debbie and the Spirit ofcourse. We were at the doorstep of Martin Luna and he wasnt buying the whole organized church thing. As he was saying his goodbyes, I whipped out the Book of Mormon. That caught his interest, because he had never heard of it before. He asked me for that copy and I gave it to him! The power of the scriptures amazes me sometimes. I hope he reading the BOM right now!

I love you all. Miss you. Muah!

Hermana Murphy

Staying together!!

hola!!!

So we are staying together in Des Moines for atleast one more transfer! Yipee! We are so excited. We are working with the best investigators and they are progressing with the help of the Lord! I have really seen the power of the Book of Mormon. Fransisco is our investigator who has been taking lessons with the missionaries for years and never connected with the BOM. We decided to give him a few specific chapters that he could read solo and understand. For example, Alma 32 about faith. Well he did it and loved it! He wants to get baptized May 30th. It was such a miracle to hear those words come out of his mouth. The Spirit touched him and he has been converted! Scriptures are very powerful.

After our district meeting this week we were asked by president to take an hour out of our day and sit alone and think about the blessings we have received by the Atonement of Jesus Christ...it was awesome! I felt the love of Heavenly Father and I am so thankful that He sent His son Jesus Christ to the earth to suffer for all of my sins. At times, it is hard to comprehend that God knows each and everyone of us individually and wants to help us and guide us through the Holy Ghost. I love being a missionary and sharing the message of the Restoration. We have the Priesthood on the earth again so we can be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ! Without baptism, repentance cannot be completely fulfilled. I was reminded of my own baptism this week because the Elders in our spanish branch had a baptism. It was a very special ordinance and Victor was made clean. Towards the end of the baptism program, members were asked to bear their testimony of the importance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I felt impressed to share my feelings on baptism- ofcourse I cried but I just talked about how much love Heavenly Father has for each of us and how He was so proud of Victor's decision to be baptized! I am so thankful for my baptism and the knowledge I have now of my true relationship with God and Jesus Christ.

We did splits on Friday with Hermana Crespo and Esmerelda. It was awesome! Hermana Reese and I split up and taught with the two other Hermanas. I went with Jenny Crespo and her two kids to see Adela and others. Having her daughter, Debbie, was a big help because everyone listened to her testimony and accepted pass along cards from her. Debbie is a great example for me because she wasnt afraid to talk to anyone! We all need to be like little children and love everyone! We are doing exchanges again this Friday. Hermana Reese and Esmerelda taught a sweet lesson with Angel- he is praying about baptism. Our investigators are doing fantastic all with the help of the Lord and the power of the Holy Ghost. A lot of the people we are teaching are praying about baptism...we want to plan two weddings :) Juan Carlos and Norma and Adela and Inocencia. We are teaching them all the importance of family and marriage. Please, pray that our investies will receive the light and knowledge they need to make the important step and be baptized! Ally was able to come to a church activity and connected with some of the young kids..We connectec with Gladis this week and she has been completely prepared by the Lord to accept our message...we accidentally knocked the wrong door and found Bertalina who has learned before with missionaries and the member with us happened to know her...oh the miracles of missionary work. I am so thankful to have the hand of the Lord in the work!

I get to talk to my family on Sunday! Yippeeee! We also found out we get to go to the Nauvoo Temple to see the Ortega family be sealed this month!

I love all of you and will write again Monday. Muah!

Love Hermana Murphy